0000000000784845

AUTHOR

Kristian König

A new Collinear Apparatus for Laser Spectroscopy and Applied Science (COALA).

We present a new collinear laser spectroscopy setup that has been designed to overcome systematic uncertainty limits arising from high-voltage and frequency measurements, beam superposition, and collisions with residual gas that are present in other installations utilizing this technique. The applied methods and experimental realizations are described, including an active stabilization of the ion-source potential, new types of ion sources that have not been used for collinear laser spectroscopy so far, dedicated installations for pump-and-probe measurements, and a versatile laser system referenced to a frequency comb. The advanced setup enables us to routinely determine transition frequenci…

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High Voltage Metrology with Collinear Laser Spectroscopy

We present results of laser spectroscopic high voltage measurements on the 5 ppm relative uncertainty level using a pump and probe scheme on Ca+ ions. With the two-stage laser interaction and with a reference measurement we can eliminate systematic effects like differences in contact potentials of electrode materials, thermo-electric voltages, and the unknown starting potential of the ions in the ion source. Our measurements are compatible with the 5 ppm precision limits of the high voltage dividers used for comparison and demonstrate an unprecedented increase in the accuracy of laser-based high voltage measurements by a factor of 20.

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Laser spectroscopy of the ground-state hyperfine structure in H-like and Li-like bismuth

The LIBELLE experiment performed at the experimental storage ring (ESR) at the GSI Helmholtz Center in Darmstadt aims for the determination of the ground state hyperfine (HFS) transitions and lifetimes in hydrogen-like (209Bi82+) and lithium-like (209Bi80+) bismuth. The study of HFS transitions in highly charged ions enables precision tests of QED in extreme electric and magnetic fields otherwise not attainable in laboratory experiments. While the HFS transition in H-like bismuth was already observed in earlier experiments at the ESR, the LIBELLE experiment succeeded for the first time to measure the HFS transition in Li-like bismuth in a laser spectroscopy experiment.

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Lifetimes and g-factors of the HFS states in H-like and Li-like bismuth

The LIBELLE experiment performed at the experimental storage ring (ESR) at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, has successfully determined the ground state hyperfine (HFS) splittings in hydrogen-like ($^{209}\rm{Bi}^{82+}$) and lithium-like ($^{209}\rm{Bi}^{80+}$) bismuth. The study of HFS transitions in highly charged ions enables precision tests of QED in extreme electric and magnetic fields otherwise not attainable in laboratory experiments. Besides the transition wavelengths the time resolved detection of fluorescence photons following the excitation of the ions by a pulsed laser system also allows to extract lifetimes of the upper HFS levels and g-fac…

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High-resolution laser spectroscopy of Al27–32

Hyperfine spectra of $^\text{27-32}$Al ($Z=13$) have been measured at the ISOLDE-CERN facility via collinear laser spectroscopy using the $3s^23p\ ^2\text{P}^\text{o} _{3/2}\rightarrow 3s^24s\ ^2\text{S}_{1/2}$ atomic transition. For the first time, mean-square charge radii of radioactive aluminum isotopes have been determined alongside the previously unknown magnetic dipole moment of $^{29}$Al and electric quadrupole moments of $^{29,30}$Al. A potentially reduced charge radius at $N=19$ may suggest an effect of the $N=20$ shell closure, which is visible in the Al chain, contrary to other isotopic chains in the $sd$ shell. The experimental results are compared to theoretical calculations in…

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An improved value for the hyperfine splitting of hydrogen-like209Bi82+

We report an improved measurement of the hyperfine splitting in hydrogen-like bismuth (209Bi82+) at the experimental storage ring ESR at GSI by laser spectroscopy on a coasting beam. Accuracy was improved by about an order of magnitude compared to the first observation in 1994. The most important improvement is an in situ high voltage measurement at the electron cooler (EC) platform with an accuracy at the 10 ppm level. Furthermore, the space charge effect of the EC current on the ion velocity was determined with two independent techniques that provided consistent results. The result of nm provides an important reference value for experiments testing bound-state quantum electrodynamics in t…

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Hyperfine transition in209Bi80+—one step forward

The hyperfine transitions in lithium-like and hydrogen-like bismuth were remeasured by direct laser spectroscopy at the experimental storage ring. For this we have now employed a voltage divider which enabled us to monitor the electron cooler voltage in situ. This will improve the experimental accuracy by about one order of magnitude with respect to our previous measurement using the same technique.

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High-resolution laser spectroscopy of Al27-32

Hyperfine spectra of Al27-32 (Z=13) have been measured at the ISOLDE-CERN facility via collinear laser spectroscopy using the 3s23p2P3/2o→3s24s2S1/2 atomic transition. For the first time, mean-square charge radii of radioactive aluminum isotopes have been determined alongside the previously unknown magnetic dipole moment of Al29 and electric quadrupole moments of Al29,30. A potentially reduced charge radius at N=19 may suggest an effect of the N=20 shell closure, which is visible in the Al chain, contrary to other isotopic chains in the sd shell. The experimental results are compared with theoretical calculations in the framework of the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization gro…

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High precision hyperfine measurements in Bismuth challenge bound-state strong-field QED

Electrons bound in highly charged heavy ions such as hydrogen-like bismuth 209Bi82+ experience electromagnetic fields that are a million times stronger than in light atoms. Measuring the wavelength of light emitted and absorbed by these ions is therefore a sensitive testing ground for quantum electrodynamical (QED) effects and especially the electron–nucleus interaction under such extreme conditions. However, insufficient knowledge of the nuclear structure has prevented a rigorous test of strong-field QED. Here we present a measurement of the so-called specific difference between the hyperfine splittings in hydrogen-like and lithium-like bismuth 209Bi82+,80+ with a precision that is improve…

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High-voltage measurements on the 5 ppm relative uncertainty level with collinear laser spectroscopy

We present the results of high-voltage collinear laser spectroscopy measurements on the 5 ppm relative uncertainty level using a pump and probe scheme at the transition of involving the metastable state. With two-stage laser interaction and a reference measurement we can eliminate systematic effects such as differences in the contact potentials due to different electrode materials and thermoelectric voltages, and the unknown starting potential of the ions in the ion source. Voltage measurements were performed between −5 kV and −19 kV and parallel measurements with stable high-voltage dividers calibrated to 5 ppm relative uncertainty were used as a reference. Our measurements are compatible …

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Beamline for low-energy transport of highly charged ions at HITRAP

Abstract A beamline for transport of highly charged ions with energies as low as a few keV/charge has been constructed and commissioned at GSI. Complementary to the existing infrastructure of the HITRAP facility for deceleration of highly charged ions from the GSI accelerator, the new beamline connects the HITRAP ion decelerator and an EBIT with the associated experimental setups. Therefore, the facility can now transport the decelerated heavy highly charged ions to the experiments or supply them offline with medium-heavy highly charged ions from the EBIT, both at energies as low as a few keV/charge. Here we present the design of the 20 m long beamline with the corresponding beam instrument…

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